Data shows the uptick of mobile usage as the dominant means of retail purchasing. This holiday, keep your focus on ease of use at your customers’ fingertips. Through simple, clear, concise and effective marketing techniques designed around an on-the-go consumer, your holiday campaigns should earn a spot on your customers’ “nice” list.
Create immediate action through mobile devices this holiday season with these proven holiday tactics.
Deck Your Halls Seamlessly
Grabbing the attention of your customers is a challenge. Once you have their eyes on your prize, it’s critical you make the most of it by making their experience seamless.
It’s also important to remember that 71% of consumers use a combination of in-store and online channels to buy holiday gifts. Recreating the in-store experience on your mobile app or store will help increase conversions.
71% of consumers use a combinaton of in-store and online channels to buy holiday gifts.
MDG Advertising
After you’ve decked the halls with all of your new merchandise, ensure the experience of your online store/app is seamless:
- All customers want easy, so give it to them by creating a simplistic means of searching for the product they want. Mobile search should be easy peasy.
- Help customers readily find the information they need to make an informed purchase by categorizing effectively, further encouraging a sale.
- Make your mobile experience feel like the physical store, which creates cohesion across marketing channels.
Make your company’s goal to offer such an amazing user experience that customers will recommend you to all of their friends.
Speaking of referrals…
Sharing is Caring
Share, share, share! Great deals are hard to keep private when we’re all strapped for holiday cash. Making it easy for consumers to share what they find could be your easiest and greatest marketing tool yet.
Incentives are king. Consider providing a referral link that gives customers an additional percentage or dollar amount off if their friends purchase using the link.
- Consider sharing a referral link they can share with up to 5 friends that gives consumers an additional percentage or dollar amount off if their friends purchase using the link. Incentives are king!
- Make it easy for customers to find and share deals and coupons from social media or email; this could be crucial in the holiday countdown.
- Don’t forget to make it easy for consumers to redeem promo codes once they get on your site. Once you’ve shared them, they have to be able to redeem them.
Beyond sharing the great deals that you’re offering, don’t forget to align your messaging across all channels. Your social media messaging should align with the messaging in your emails and vice versa. If it isn’t consistent, it could erode trust in your brand.
Oh, Holy Mobile!
Did we say that mobile was taking over this holiday season? Ok, we know, you get the picture. But here are some specific ways to make your campaigns mobile this holiday season:
- Make sure your email templates are mobile responsive across email clients. Seems pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised how many emails we get that aren’t.
- When in doubt, think of your mobile subscribers and how they would want information displayed. Most subscribers are checking emails on their phones, which then directs them to your site. If they are on your site on their mobile device, is it an optimal experience?
- If you’re feeling brave, utilize SMS messaging to market to your consumers in real-time. Make sure you’re compliant with the opt-in standards to be able to market to them this way.
“Mobile is now the primary access point to online retail for most consumers,” says Andrew Lipsman, Vice President of Marketing and Insights at comScore. “As a result, retailers really need to rethink how they deliver their online shopping experience.”
Prepare for a Clean Sweep
It’s no secret consumers are researching products before purchasing nowadays. There’s actually a term for it: webrooming. As defined by HubSpot, webrooming is “what happens when consumers research products online before going into the store to make those purchases.”
Conversely, showrooming is “when a shopper visits a store to check out a product but then purchases the product from home,” according to techopedia.
Webrooming is when consumers research your products online before going into a store to make a purchase. Showrooming is when a consumer researches the product in the store before purchasing online.
Are your visitors going to find what they need when searching online?
Let’s take that one step further. Are they going to find what they need when they’re searching online on their mobile device?
Check in on your SEO. Google searches on mobile for the “best” products are up 50%; consumers are using their mobile phones for shopping-related activities, such as comparing prices and searching for coupons.
Review and prioritize the optimization on your product pages. Incentivize Google reviews. Create consistent and relevant content on your blog. Launch paid social advertising to drive traffic. By utilizing these tactics and paying attention to your online mobile search strategy, you’ll sweep those customers straight to your site and to your shopping cart.
The Gift of Mobile
Anyone wishing to capture customers this holiday season must create the best user mobile experience possible for their market. If glitz isn’t in your bag of tricks, no worries. Stay true to your brand. Keep it simple. Just make sure you reach out across the available mobile mediums and at minimum – offer gratitude to your customers. You reap what you sow, and you may be paid back in spades.
You made it onto our good list this season. Create a free account and analyze your list now.
